Wilco — 4 July 2026, Austin, TX (Germania Insurance Amphitheater) [Outlaw Music Festival; Day 2 of 12/Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic]

Playing in front of a huge American flag that is usually reserved for Willie Nelson during the Outlaw Music Festival but which served as the backdrop for the entire show at Nelson’s annual 4^th of July Picnic, Wilco had a chance to make a statement that I personally would’ve been curious to witness. It was extremely doubtful, if only because the song hasn’t been in regular rotation for a while, but I wonder if it ever crossed Jeff’s mind to open with Ashes Of American Flags.

Would that have been a step too far, not only in the obvious sense but also as something that might be perceived as being disrespectful to the nonagenarian country music legend at one of his signature events? I guess it’s a moot point, because it didn’t happen — and probably would’ve been too spot-on to ever realistically happen — but one can imagine how cool that would have been.

Given all that, would it have been too much to ask for a set-closing cover of the Grateful Dead’s U.S. Blues, as one regular reader of these recaps suggested to me? I think that one would have been more within the realm of possibility since Jeff and Co. closed with it at all three Outlaw fest dates they did last August (with Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael sitting in) as well as most of their shows for the remainder of the month, which closed out their 2025 touring schedule. But that was not to be either, with the only consolation prize being Raphael making a cameo on California Stars.

Part of that was almost certainly due to the even further abbreviated set time for Wilco, which saw its share of the show cut to just 45 minutes from an hour the previous night in Irving, Tex. With this Outlaw tour stop also doubling as Willie’s annual 4^th of July Picnic, a couple other acts were added to fill out the lineup — Billy Strings and Rodney Crowell — so that meant every act’s schedule was further condensed. (Strings took over the de facto No. 2 slot on the bill, playing just before Nelson, and accordingly got a full hour.) Of course Jeff and Co. also chose to include three of their jammiest tunes — Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull, Impossible Germany and Kingpin — which meant that there were even less songs played. Jesus, etc., and Walken were both on the printed setlist, for example, but were both cut, which also made this the second straight show without a single song from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Jeff, as you might expect, had almost zero time (or inclination) to visit Banter Corner, except for a couple quick thank yous and a Happy 4^th of July as he and his bandmates walked off stage. He did change the lyric in Kingpin, naturally, to “livin’ in…Austin” and gave his usual spiel at the end of that song about how you don’t need to know what to do to “give your fucking love away. Everybody needs love.” But otherwise, it was — to paraphrase a term from the standup comedy world — a tight 45.

Strings had already been lined up for this year’s Picnic, but even with the addition of the buzzy bluegrass wunderkind, the event apparently threatened to fall victim to the dreaded “blue dot fever.” Some of that might be attributed to the venue, which is an uncovered amphitheater that is part of the Circuit Of The Americas auto-racing complex on the outskirts of Austin and you can understand why people might not be so eager to sit out there all day in the sweltering Texas heat without much shade. Or maybe because, like its namesake, the Picnic is an event that is always there year-in and year-out, so folks don’t commit to attending until late in the game. Fortunately, the venue — which apparently can accommodate up to 14,000 people, with 5,240 permanent reserved seats — seemed to be reasonably full, if not exactly sold out.

As for Wilco’s participation in the festivities apart from its own performance, most of the band members actually set foot on stage for the first time when they joined the large group of fellow artists invited out by Crow during her set preceding Wilco’s for a new song that is apparently called Freedom Bus. They didn’t seem to do a whole lot except stand in the back and shake a few shakers, but it was still cool to see them join Crow and her band relatively early in the show.

By the time both Wilco and Strings had played and a fireworks display took place, it was well past midnight by the time Nelson closed out the Picnic with his usual I’ll Fly Away sendoff. Among the Wilcos, I only spotted Glenn and Mikael up there at the end (although a couple of the other guys could have been somewhere in the back). Apparently the Texas Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, James Talarico, was also up there, and Mikael later posted a photo of he and the boyish Talarico on social media.

At any rate, it was a long day — and night — of music and celebrations, but certainly enjoyable enough in spite of the sun and heat. I’m glad I made it out there, and made it to the end, but in retrospect I’m not sure I need to do it again anytime soon. For those who’ve made it to this point, though, one other “good” thing that came out of this show was a now-legendary review of Wilco’s performance that I will address in the next post. Cliffhanger!

Here was the complete setlist for Wilco, as played (both Jesus, etc., and Walken were listed on the printed setlist between Impossible Germany and Kingpin but neither were played):

1. Handshake Drugs

2. Hummingbird

3. Bird Without A Tail/Base Of My Skull

4. Via Chicago

5. California Stars (with Mickey Raphael on harmonica)

6. Impossible Germany

7. Kingpin